I didn’t have the Tigers ranked nearly as highly (21st) as the AP poll (10th) — the Auburn win has gotten less impressive by the week — so the quality of Florida State’s victory Saturday night was somewhat tempered.

What’s more, I felt Kansas State deserved to jump ahead of the Noles based on what the teams have accomplished thus far.

FSU has beaten three cupcakes and No. 21 (my ballot) Clemson at home.

K State has beaten two cupcakes and Miami (not good, but not a cupcake) at home and won at No. 17 (my ballot) Oklahoma.

* Oregon State made its first appearance on the ballot in several years after a 27-20 victory at UCLA, which two weeks ago beat Nebraska on the same field.

I kept the Bruins on the ballot. At this point, if Nebraska’s ranked, UCLA has to be, as well.

* Arizona was removed from the ballot after its 49-0 loss at Oregon.

I usually don’t yank teams for losing on the road to ranked opponents (see: No. 15 Michigan, below). But you cannot lose 49-0 and expect to hold you place.

* The Wolverines have lost to my No. 1 and 5 teams. That doesn’t mean they aren’t one of the best 15 or 20 in the country; it only means they’ve played a much tougher schedule than most.

Jon Wilner

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Notre Dame at #5 is a TRAVESTY!!! They beat a terrible Michigan team and only put up 13 points!! Thats like 20 points below michigans points allowed average. Jimminy Cricket!! Florida at #7!!?? Im literally LOLing right now. South Carolina deserves top 10 just because their defense is legit. They will beat Florida by 2 touchdowns most likely. Then maybe you should give me your AP voting status… because this is garbage. It should read: #1-Alabama #2 Alabama 2nd string #3 Alabama 3rd String #4 Everyone else.

EC

I appreciate the early post and the rationale…I wish all writers and SIDs (coaches) would do the same.

Jimbo

You are truly insane. FSU could easily smoke five teams you have listed above them….and you have severely underrated Clemson. What in the world are your credentials? Most of what I overhear in a bar is more credible than the above column.

lol

where is mississippi state? Michigan should gone until the end of the season and we see what happen. Tennessee shouldn’t be on the list. their d is bad and they are overrated.

Robert

You’re all over the map.

UGA is 3 despite not beating anyone except a Mizzou team that isn’t very good. Buffalo gave them a game.

Yet FSU is 9th despite clobbering a Wake team about as good as Mizzou and easily beating a Clemson team that is much better then Mizzou.

Basically it seems to me you have a double standard on your ballot.

Who has LSU beat? Same thing here. They beat a bad Washington team and Auburn (barely). The same Auburn that Clemson beat by a larger margin and while missing their best player.

I don’t really mind your listed criteria. You just cherry pick when to apply it. Teams like UGA and LSU that haven’t played anyone special, and have looked not that good at times are given a free pass while other teams like WVU and FSU are punished for looking really good and playing similar schedules to this point. Heck the best team any of those 4 have played so far is easily FSU’s win over Clemson.

Pat Cerulli

Where is Rutgers? They just beat an SEC team on the road, with their starting QB back. Nebraska #19 is a joke.

Mike

I find fault with many of your choices and will highlight one.

Poll should be Ala, Oregon, FSU, and then LSU.

Why…

Clemson beat Auburn by 7 points (26-19)

LSU beat Auburn by 2 points (12-10)

Which should mean, Clemson when playing the say team seemed to have a better team than LSU.

Now, FSU beat Clemson by 12 points. (49-37), the same team that beat Auburn by more than LSU did.

How can anyone think LSU should be ahead of FSU, IT’S SIMPLE MATH.

Gauss

I’m still not convinced that Oregon State and UCLA are top 25 teams (I have the feeling UCLA will lose to Cal, and OSU to BYU), but I guess they might deserve it for now.

Michigan, getting destroyed by Alabama and being offensively inept against ND, is getting a very generous top-15 ranking.

ND didn’t look like a top-5 team, but we’ll know soon enough when they play Stanford.

sciguybm

Hmmm. Well. Ok: Florida State has a tendency to beat teams they should and lose to teams they shouldn’t. I would agree that put against the top 5 you have Florida State would crumble. The ACC as a football power just isn’t. Northwestern would rule that conference if it were in it.
As much as I hate Chip and the Ducks (well I hate Chip for being a thug-coach) they are good. Fast. Team speed is amazing.
I also have to agree with ND. Their O is awful but their D is real.
Nice work.

Yoni

WVU drops 6 places and is ranked just above Michigan. Get a life!

Warty

Notre Dame … Way too high.
Texas, Clemson… A bit low.

Oregon State…. I have to recuse myself as I am an alumni.
That being said, Stanford and Oregon look about right to me.

Go RU

At least your rankings don’t count for crap, Rutgers #23

Ronnyber

I have to question if you even watch College Football. Your poll is the worst in the nation. I have to believe that you do this just to get a rise out of fans

Os Beaver

Oregon State far outplayed both the #13 & #19 teams, so placing them in the middle of that range is both fair and earned by OSU. The Beavers ended up ranked #18 in the AP Poll just behind Clemson. UCLA just fell out.

JS

At least UCLA was ranked properly. They lost to an undefeated top-20 team, and out-gained Nebraska by 200 yards. UCLA should be ranked well ahead of Nebraska.

Jon is right that Oklahoma St should not be ranked, because Arizona clearly does not deserve to be either.

I don’t mind Jon’s logic with Michigan, but with the eye-test, they look like a pretty bad football team. So does Notre Dame for that matter. If Nunes can keep from throwing picks, Stanford is going to dominate ND.

alchemist

Clemson stinks. They are like the east coast UCLA: they are defined by unreasonable expectations and, without failure, losing at least one game along the way that they should have won. On top that West Virginia just scored again! Wilner is giving a victory over them all the credit it deserves. FSU, meh. That entire conference is a pathetic joke so they might finish undefeated and be this year’s Boise State. We’ll see though.

Ranger John

Jon, I find it crazy that you reward Nebraska for a HOME win over a DII type team….anybody could have put 60 pts on Idaho State…

Where is the 3-1 SAN JOSE STATE SPARTANS in your poll, may I remind you the only loss was to YOUR #8 TEAM…Stanfurd…on a fumble!

MostWanted

I’ll say this for you John, at least you have the stones to list your explanation out there instead of hiding like the rest of the voters. That being said you go on to say teams haven’t played anybody then vote them top 5-10.

If this is a popularity contest then yes those teams are popular and also I don’t like the term cupcake. These kids are working their butts off.

RobleSteve

I like to give Wilner flack but at least he’s internally consistent with his methodology. I wish this transparency existed for the other pollsters.

ctdaniel

Still no love for the Spartans? I think SJSU is more deserving that TCU (who has not played anyone of note). You don’t seem to be giving the Stanford game much weight.

utahman

He defends his low ranking and DROPPING of Florida State (after beating the #10 team in the nation) by saying they’ve beaten 3 cupcakes and Clemson (No. 21 in his ballot) at home. Yet, he ranks Oregon #2, even thought they’ve beaten 3 cupcakes and Arizona (not ranked in his poll) at home.

He further defends it by saying that Auburn has looked worse and worse every week thus making the win over Clemson somewhat diminished…even though Auburn almost beat LSU yesterday.

If this fool wants to use these reasons for jumping KSU above Florida State, that’s fine. But he needs to jump them above Oregon too, using the same reasoning.

He’s a great example of why there is no credibility in any human polls. In fat, he just might be the poster child.

RG

Random pickings and justification for them. Notre Dame at #5 is ridiculous. They got 6 turnovers against a mediocre Michigan team and yet only scored 13 at home. Not an impressive win at all.

Michigan St and Michigan are both proving to be not very good. In fact, the Big 10 is as bad as I’ve ever seen it. No dominant teams.

http://SFMercury don williams

The Oklahoma coach should be fired ..His brother the defense coach also…Putting in players that are only on the team because of being well connected politically is a firing offense…I think…

Spartan Pubber

Jon,

Start getting San Jose State on your radar. After the Utah State game they’ll be a top 25 team.

Spartan Pubber

Jon,

Start getting San Jose State on your radar. After the Utah State game, they’ll be a top 25 team.

milo esteem

USC at #10? Seriously? WHERE’S CAL???!

GO BEERS! uh, Bears.

Huskerteer

Pubber…Navy may be a trap so we can’t look too far ahead.

Even so, win or lose at Navy I think Coach Mac will have Sparty prepared for USU since they have two weeks to do so (bye week after Navy).

Go Spartans!

Tank

“Northwestern would rule that conference if it were in it.”

Totally. The Big Ten’s killing it this year.

Clemson might score 100 on Northwestern if they played next week. Seriously.

MmmmKay

LSU should drop more than 2 spots. Winning on the road to a crap Auburn team by a measly 2 points???

Lets take an honest look at the SEC’s collective joke of a non-conference schedule for fun!

Unlike the Pac-12, SEC gets a 4th non conf game to fluff up their already overestimated preseason rankings. Out of 12 teams and 48 total possible OOC games there are only 12 OOC opponents who are above dog-crap levels and so far are only 4-5: